14 | AUGUST 17 • 2023 

love of music and cars. “He just got a new 
Miata, a cute two-seater roadster,
” she 
recalls. “He let me drive it, and I was just 
thrilled.
” She told him about her Datsun 
240Z, they talked about cars and their fam-
ilies, and the rest is history. They’ve traveled 
the world collecting and exploring cars and 
car culture, sharing their enthusiasm with 
their daughters, Faye and Zoē, now 30 and 
26, as well. 
For instance, Mendelson picked up Faye 
from middle school in a Ferrari 430 F1, and 
later made sure she wouldn’t be limited to 
automatic transmissions. “I bought Faye a 
Jeep Wrangler with a stick shift when she 
was a freshman in college, and I taught her 
how to drive a stick,
” she says. “She headed 
out to Woodward and never looked back.
”
The first car in Mendelson’s collection 
was a 2003 BMW V8 Alpina Roadster Z8, 

which she bought after her mother died. 
Then, in 2004, they went to the auto show 
and her husband pointed out a Maserati 
Quattroporte, joking that she might want 
that instead of a minivan. Maserati just 
started making it for the first time since the 
1970s. “I looked at it, I said, ‘I bet you’re 
right.
’” She got in and tried it out, then 
shortly thereafter, put down a deposit for 
their ’05 model.
The next year, the Mendelsons joined the 
waitlist for a Ferrari 430 FI, adding that to 
their growing collection. “Once we started 
on this roll with the Z8 and Ferrari and 
Maserati, we just kept going,
” she says. “It’s 
our thing. I’ll contact the people as long as 
I like it, or I’ll pick one out and call to ask if 
it’s available, I’ll fly to Milan or wherever to 
go meet them, and then we’ll order it.
” 
Asked about her favorite car, she 
describes them like her kids. They all bring 
something to the table, she says. “If you 
have kids or nieces or nephews, you love 

them for what they are; they’re all different 
— it’s hard to pick.
” She highlights the 2003 
BMW V8 Alpina Roadster, though, as a sig-

continued from page 13

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

Vintage Car Fan

Sandor Holzer of West Bloomfield grew 
up in Walled Lake watching and working 
on cars. His neighbor used to restore 
Volkswagen Beetles and Ford Mustangs 
and usually had a driveway full of them. 
Behind the shed were donor cars they 
used for parts. “People would come by. It 
was a hangout,” he recalls. 
He always had an affinity for the first 
year’s car. And so, he recently welcomed 
a ’65 Mustang to his Michigan home, 
shipped from South Carolina after sever-
al years of looking. “The Ford Mustang, 
when it was introduced, really, really 
shocked the world,” he says. “It was the 
first American muscle car, the little sports 

car that could.”
As a fan of vintage cars, he loves driving 
with the windows down and listening to 
the engine roar. “I’m into old, raw, lots of 
noises and rattles, manual transmissions, 
and the lights dimming when you stop at 
traffic lights because the voltage regula-
tors are old,” he says. 
He’s often found in the garage work-
ing on his car or taking part in “cars and 
coffee” events where he can meet other 
like-minded enthusiasts. 
His car attracts fun attention when he’s 
driving. “I cannot go one stoplight without 
people giving a thumbs up or a wave or 
asking me to rev up the engine or spin the 
the tires,” he says. “They don’t make them 
like they used to. It’s fun to drive around 

an old hoopty that’s loud and old.” 
At the Dream Cruise, he says, there’s 
always something to see, whether it’s the 
finish of the paint job, custom wheels or 
other modifications and updates people 
have made to their cars. “You see the 
ingenuity that went into the modifica-
tion, the restoration, and it gives you a 
different appreciation for a car,” he says. 
Meanwhile, excitement around the vehi-
cles began building weeks ago, he says. 
For the month preceding the cruise, 
people are parked and “kibbutzing” about, 
he notes. Like many people, he doesn’t 
take his car the day of the Dream Cruise 
but likes to go the week before. “People 
are plopped on lawn chairs, just like the 
day of the Dream Cruise,” he explains. 

“IT’S BLOSSOMED INTO 

A WAY OF LIFE FOR ME.”

— LAUREN MENDELSON

Lauren 
Mendelson 
behind the 
wheel of a 
Ferrari

Sandor Holzer and 
his restored 1965 
Ford Mustang.

Sandor behind 
the wheel.

A peek under 
the hood.

continued on page 16